The “Burning Love” Mansion

This past February, thanks to Reality Steve and the E! Channel, I was introduced to the brilliance that is the Ben Stiller-produced parody of The Bachelor titled Burning Love. The Hose Ceremonies along with the catchphrase “Will you accept my hose?” are pure comic genius! The last time I found myself laughing so much over a television series was when I first started watching The Office. Anyone who is at all a fan of The Bachelor will LOVE Burning Love. As of yet, I have only seen the Season 1 episodes that have aired on E! (the show started as a web series and was later picked up by the cable channel), but am already eagerly awaiting Season 2 – although I cannot imagine a better lead character than Mark Orlando (Ken Marino – who also directs the series and whose wife, Erica Oyama, is the head writer). So when I saw that fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, had tracked down the mansion where the contestants live on the show, I just about passed out from excitement and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it while we were in L.A. this past weekend.

Back in June 2012, Geoff came across this Yahoo TV article about the series in which Ken Marino stated that the Burning Love mansion was located in Calabasas, in the same area as the ranch from The Biggest Loser (which I blogged about here). I so love that Ken knew that, by the way! Most people in the industry could care less about filming locations, but I digress. Anyway, Geoff started looking for the ginormous Tuscan-style estate in the Calabasas hills, but the hunt proved to be a bit of a tough one. Because the property was recently constructed in 2008, most angles of Google and Bing Maps show its location as a vacant plot of land. It was not until Geoff randomly switched the map view to a different direction at one point during his search that the abode appeared and he realized it was the place he had been looking for.

In real life, the massive manse boasts seven en-suite bedrooms, eight baths, 9,684 square feet of living space, a 7.29-acre plot of land, a media room, a play room, an office/library, five fireplaces (!), a 1,500-bottle wine cellar, hand-crafted ceilings, 360-degree views of the Santa Monica Mountains, a sauna, a pool, a spa, and a built-in BBQ. The property last sold in April 2011 for $2,600,000 and is currently for sale for $3,950,000. You can check out the home’s real estate listing here.

Before arriving at the residence, I was nervous that it would not be visible from the street, so I was completely floored to discover that it was, for the most part, in open view!

Burning Love, which is so spot-on in its parody of The Bachelor that I constantly have to remind myself that the show is not actually a reality series, centers around several woman, most of whom are dental hygienists, hoping to find love with Mark, the boneheaded fireman who in the premiere episode announced that his soul mate was “someone who can make me laugh, but isn’t afraid of robots.” LOL The mansion was used extensively in the filming, which according to this Yahoo TV article, took only eight days to complete. The areas of the estate that appeared on the show include the front exterior;

the entryway;

the kitchen [and yes, contestant Haley (Chelsea Lately’s Natasha Leggero), who is pictured below, does not wear pants on the series, causing Mark to say in one scene, “I can definitely see us starting a family together, maybe in a town where they accept people who don’t wear pants.” LOL];

the living room;

the family room, where the Hose Ceremonies take place;

the master bedroom (check out the old school back pillow sitting on the floor – again LOL) . . .

. . . where Mark gazes at himself longingly in the mirror;

and the pool, where Mark throws a pool party because “I thought it would be a great chance to see the girls let loose . . . uh, also to see a lot of top and side-boob and, if we’re lucky, a little butt cleavage.” As Dan Casey said in his post about the show on Nerdist, “From the needlessly confusing rules, the preposterous theme dates and the plucked-from-Guess Who contestants, Burning Love hits the nail on its vapid, empty head.” That it does, Dan. And I couldn’t love it more. If you are at all a fan of The Bachelor (or just simply love to hate it), Burning Love is a must-watch!

You can watch the first episode of Burning Love, which features a cameo appearance by Jennifer Aniston,as well as a handful of other stars, by clicking below.